Bad back forced Carrozza resignation

As I mentioned Tuesday, Saunders coach Mel Carrozza resigned this week. I talked to him today and Carrozza said he was forced to make the decision because of a bad back. He suffered a herniated disc in June and his condition has not improved despite several treatments and procedures in recent weeks.

“It just wasn’t going to work for me to coach,” he said. “I just wasn’t getting better.”

Carrozza’s assistants have conducted team workouts this week, although the district has yet to appoint a new head coach.

The change comes as a surprise after Carrozza led Saunders to one of its best seasons in years. The Blue Devils went 6-1 and earned a berth in the Class A playoffs before they lost to Section 1 runner-up Sleepy Hollow in the quarterfinals.

Carrozza said the team had hoped — and still hopes — it can build off that; he just wasn’t healthy enough to be a part of it.

“I worked my butt off and those kids worked hard all winter,” he said. “We’ve done everything possible, but I have to do what’s right to get healthy again.

“I felt it was in the best interest of the kids to let somebody else take over.”

JOSH THOMSON joined The Journal News and LoHud.com in March 2003 and has covered high school football, basketball, baseball and pro and college sports ever since. He graduated in 1998 from Carmel High School and in 2002 from Boston University with a degree in communications. Josh spends the majority of his free time with his wife and two daughters.

13 Comments

however, to say that a “program” was built at Saunders is ridiculous. their schedule was a joke last year and they were embarrassed by sleepy hollow. it will be interesting to see how this team does in year TWO of their climb to respectability.

Know… completely agree. They only played 1 playoff team the entire year during the regular season (Brewster) and got lit up vs. them and any other 1/2 decent opponent. I think that the New Ro JV team would do better… seriously. They benefited from a flawed system, while YTown and JJCR were on the outside looking in.

@Intheknow Yes, schedule was less than competitive last year. A couple of programs across the board had similar schedules and made it to the playoffs via the flawed system we have in place. However I hope that all these programs with less than competitive schedules will get more kids to come out and get the community and school behind them to support them. Nobody likes to play on a losing team. If they get some wins under their belt consistently against stronger competition then who knows, maybe a program will be built.

For you guys, “know and YO” to turn this into Saunders over achieving and benefiting from this and that is ridiculous. the article was about the guys health and the fact that he couldnt return to a team that he helped turn around. its pathetic and embarrassing that you resort to talking about a jv team could do better. if you knew ANYTHING about football you woulda understood that ANY jv team would get blasted be a good varsity football team – saunders was good, far from great, but they were good, or else they wouldnt have beat 6 teams. Brewster did not light up Saunders, it was 7-0 at halftime n they had a couple of bad breaks in the second half.
get over yourselves and whatever teams didnt make it, get well coach carrozza and thank you for the time and effort you put it as your age. yonkers appreciates it

Blue. I saw the Brewster game. It was not close. Brewster played poorly and Saunders could barley squeak out a yard. What game were you watching? Here are their wins; Gorton, Lincoln, Peekskill, Yonkers High, Spring Valley and Port Chester. They were unable to score a point against the two playoff teams that they played. I hope Carrozza get’s better, and kudos to them for getting into the playoffs, but let’s not call these Blue Devils a good team…. “come on mannnnnnn.” I don’t necessarily agree that New Rochelle JV would beat them, but I bet it would be closer than you think…

big bear. saunders couldnt score against brewster but its defense was forcing brewster bad plays. i said they were a good team, not a great team. good teams will beat the other teams on their schedule, like port chester who was 5-1 when saunders beat them. this jv scenario u guys have going, you show how much you know about football yourself here, any jv team would get destroyed by a varsity team that was able to win atleast 3 or 4 games. if new ro jv played brewster last year the score would be 40-0 at halftime, your talking about freshman and sophomores, please stop none of you have a clue

no ‘bad’ team that would have multiple last minute come back wins to end the season..the fact that the kids had some character to do that goes along way, some of the people on these blogs should learn from them.

Saunders had it’s struggles, and there were some easier games on the schedule, but Spring Valley and Port Chester were no joke. The Brewster game was tough, but Brewster was shook up in the first half, and Saunders was missing a couple key starters on the line. For a school with little financial support, no jv program, 3 full time coaches, and only a few starting seniors, I’d say what they did was remarkable. 0-9 in 2010 (no carrozza), 3-6 2011 (carrozza takes over in August 2011), 2012 7-1 (1 year of full off season program). I don’t know too many programs that have done something like that, especially without a JV program.

You would be surprised how many quality coaches have turned around programs over the years. More importantly, many have done it versus legitimate competition. Say what you want, Saunders schedule last year was a JOKE!

I can’t help but wonder if Carrozza’s early departure had something to do w/ the schedule. Would be interesting if he resurfaced somewhere.

in the know
carrozzas departure has NOTHING to do with the schedule, the schedule came out MONTHS ago, are you aware of that.

you see you continue to miss the point about Saunders this past year, they use to lose those teams 30-0, now they beat numerous teams by 3 or more TDs along with a couple last minute winning drives. all with 3 coaches no financial support no JV it goes on and on.

they played Spring Valley who had far more talent than them n were fighting for the playoffs n sent them home packing. than they played 5-1 port chester at their place, winner in gets in and Saunders again, BOTH of them they won in the final minute.
no props? c’moooooooooon MANNNNNNN

man we understand that we are not harrison or rye, it can take a decade to get to that level, but Saunders helped a reeling community, playing ALL road games with NO home field (turf was being built). no one is saying that saunders is great, if they have a tough time this year cause they lost their coaches and their best players than SO BE IT. most of the criticism comes from people that dont even know what a pigskin feels like